Fred's Decision
by Lynne Stringer
Summary: What was Fred's reaction when he became a vampire? Why did he decide against fighting with Riley's coven? Discover what happens when he meets two members of the Cullen family. Rated M for vampire violence. Canon. More chapters coming soon.
1. Chapter 1

This was a bad idea.

I was leaning up against a tree in the most forested area in Queen Elizabeth Park. The sun was starting to rise, so I kept back so that its rays wouldn't hit me. Not that I was really sure I had to avoid it now.

I was unsure of so many things. Ever since I had been turned into a vampire, ten or so months ago, the world had changed. It was astonishing to think how much.

When I had been human I had studied the sciences. I loved its logic. If I wanted to find out the truth about something, I made notes, took samples, ran tests, all of which led me to irrefutable conclusions about the reality of our world. I liked certainty almost as much as I liked being alone.

That had changed when I was traveling along the Washington coast. I had been out there for weeks, studying marine wildlife. Jedd Taylor, my biology professor, had asked me to do the work.

"I know you'll be thorough, Fred," he'd said with a chuckle. "You won't let anything distract you from the facts."

He was right. Little else was important to me. Relationships certainly weren't; I hardly ever saw my mother or step-siblings, and my relationship with my father had always been … distant, I guess you could say. Although that was probably a good thing now.

I had never cared much for my looks. My blond hair was hanging in curls below my collar by the time I'd been on the coastline for a few weeks. I'd never worried about fashion either. Family, fashion, friends – all things I could do without.

So it had taken me by surprise when I was setting up camp one night and I realized I was being watched.

I was at a remote coastal site. No one around for miles, or so I thought. I hadn't heard him approach. I just looked up and there he was, leaning against a tree.

The thing that struck me most about him was his eyes. They were bright red. That was something I'd never seen before. I wondered if he simply had bizarre taste in contact lenses. His skin was so pale it seemed luminous in the moonlight. And the way he was looking at me … I understood that look all too well now. He had been trying his best not to kill me.

"Hello," he said eventually. "Do you often camp by yourself?"

"What's it to you?" I tried to turn my attention back to setting up the camp, hoping he would go away.

He didn't. He continued watching me from where he stood, standing so still I didn't think he was breathing. This was probably the case, at least some of the time. In spite of myself, I became curious. He seemed to be flaunting some of the hard facts I'd noted about the human race.

"Lonely spot."

I shrugged. "I like being alone." _Take the hint, mister. Move on._

But still those bright red eyes stayed fixed on me.

I grew nervous. Was he planning to mug me? If so, he wouldn't get much. I had a credit card and a few dollars. That was all, unless he wanted to take my laptop. I'd fight him for that; all my work was on it. I wrote longhand while I traveled, but kept my computer with me, updating it whenever I could find somewhere to plug it in; the battery didn't last long.

"Are you alone all the time?"

I didn't bother to answer, although I didn't turn my back on him.

"What do you do for fun?"

"This." I indicated the packs and notes around me. Now that I had finished setting up, I sat down in the middle of my camp, facing him, my tent behind me, and picked up my notebook.

"School work?" he scoffed. "Is that all?"

I glared at him. "I'm studying." I turned my eyes back to my book.

For the first time, he moved. He came closer, until he was right in front of me, a creepy smile on his face. He pushed the book away from my eyes. "Want some real excitement?"

"No." There was no hesitation in my answer. "I'm not an adrenaline kind of guy."

"I'm offering something like you've never experienced. Offers like this don't come every day, believe me. You come with me, life will never be the same."

I still wasn't buying. "Sorry. I'm not into jumping off cliffs or free falling or drugs or whatever you're trying to sell. Now go away."

After that, I only remembered seeing his frustrated expression. Then something hit me hard on the side of my head and everything went black.

When I'd woken I was in the worst pain imaginable. I thought I was being burnt to death from the inside out. That's what it felt like. At first, I couldn't tell where I was or who was with me, but after a while some things became clear.

I was in a house I had never been in before. The red-eyed man was also there (I soon discovered his name was Riley), as were a few others like him, with the pale skin and the red eyes. They paid no attention to me as I screamed and begged them to kill me, anything to end the pain. Most of them were busy arguing with Riley about whether or not they could go outside.

"It's daylight now," he told them. "Wait until nightfall."

There wasn't much else that happened by way of conversation, at least, not that I could understand. Some of the others fought savagely with each other. I was amazed to see one rip body parts off another, but only until Riley jumped on him, beating him. Then I was more amazed to see Riley stick the body parts back on, and they stayed there!

I thought I was hallucinating.

If only that had been the worst of it. But the worst came when the pain finally faded.

Once it had disappeared completely I leapt to my feet, moving much faster than I ever had before. I looked at my hands. I could see they were now as pale as everybody else's. "What have you done to me?" I was disturbed at how out of control I felt. I tried to think along rational lines, but it was next to impossible. Not only was everything – sights, smells, sounds – now bright and vivid, far beyond normal human capacity, but my throat was bone dry. I was thirsty.

Riley watched me cautiously. "It's okay, er … what's your name?"

"Fred."

"Fred. It's okay, Fred. You're fine. I've turned you into a god. Welcome to the new world!"

"A god?" I had never believed in any gods or philosophies or anything that couldn't be tested in a laboratory. "Don't be ridiculous!"

"Riley's right," another man said. His skin was slightly darker than Riley's. "You're a vampire now."

"I'm _what_?"

I didn't believe them until Riley took me hunting.

He waited until night had fallen and then took me out into the streets.

"Where are we?" I thought it looked like Seattle, but I couldn't be sure.

Riley confirmed it. "We need to stay in the shadows. Don't want our prey to know what hit them, do we?" He winked. I had no idea what he was talking about.

We kept to the back alleys for a while, then, to my amazement, Riley began to scale the walls of a building with his bare hands. He turned and looked back at me. "Come on."

Frowning, I put my hand on the wall, digging my fingers in to the mortar between the bricks. I had never been great at any kind of physical activity, but I found, to my astonishment, that not only could I cling on, it was easy to rest all my weight on my hand.

I began to pull myself up the wall, hand over hand, faster and faster. Once Riley realized I was following him, he continued, leading me to the top of the building.

We continued across the building until we came to the edge of it. Riley didn't hesitate, but leapt effortlessly from one building to the next. He looked back and jerked his head at me, indicating that I should join him.

Terrified I would fall, I took a bit of a run up, only to find that I launched myself across the entire building. I managed to catch my fingers on the edge of it before I fell. I pulled myself back up in desperation, only to launch myself in the air again. And when I landed, it was so hard that I nearly broke through the building's roof.

Riley was annoyed by that. "You'll have to be more careful. You are stronger and faster now than you've ever been. Stronger than any human ever could be."

"You aren't worried that I nearly fell to my death?" I growled.

Riley laughed. "That little fall wouldn't kill you, not now. In fact, no fall's ever going to kill you. The only thing that will kill you is another one of us or being out in the sunlight."

I tried to make sense of that as we continued to travel.

Eventually, Riley led me back down to ground level. We hadn't gone far when we came across a homeless man. He was sleeping under a pile of old newspapers.

Riley nodded at me. "Go on. Take a whiff."

For a split second I wasn't sure what he meant, then I drew breath and smelled the man. I was more astonished than anything at what happened next. I launched myself at the sleeping figure, grabbed him by the neck, and clamped down my teeth. I felt him jerk in my hands, but I paid no attention. I think it was then that I broke his neck. He certainly didn't move after that, and I drained him dry of all his blood. I gaped in disgust and horror as I had pushed his lifeless body away from me.

The worst part of it was that I wanted more.

But first things first. Riley showed me how to dispose of his body so that no one would find him. He took him to the sound, carrying his body effortlessly. Then he dived into the water.

Before he was completely submerged he stopped at looked back at me. "Come on, then."

I wasn't much of a swimmer, but I thought about what Riley had said. Nothing could kill me. Was I willing to test it by risking being drowned? It was clear I was a lot stronger than I had been. Perhaps I could swim.

I followed him in. When he saw I was moving, he nodded. "This way." Then he disappeared under the surface.

I followed him, finding that I could swim with ease. Not only that, but no matter how long I stayed under, I did not run out of oxygen. I kept swimming deeper and deeper, following Riley. How was this possible?

Riley swam to the bottom and dumped the body there, weighing him down with a huge rock. Then we swam back to the surface.

My mind was reeling as we returned to the back streets of the city. A vampire? It seemed that was true. I had killed a man by drinking his blood. But this strength and speed! And not needing to breathe. I would have to study this …

Riley grinned at me. "See? I told you that you were a god. Now, let's go find some more."

I didn't need to ask what we were looking for. My throat was still burning. We found another homeless man and two prostitutes. After I'd finished with them, we dumped their bodies in the sound as well.

"This is the way we live," he explained. "This is what your life will be from now on. All you need to remember is to stay out of the sunlight and expose of your kills."

I nodded. I didn't know which disturbed me more: the ease with which I'd ended the lives of four people or that it had satisfied me so much.

It was difficult to process. Most things were in those first few months. I could rarely think of anything other than my thirst. But that meant I would have to kill someone. Of course, whenever I was taken out on the streets to hunt, the morality of the situation paled into insignificance. I could hardly wait to find someone to ease the burn in my throat. I tried not to think of it too much afterwards. After all, it seemed I was now a different species, much like a predator in the wild. It just so happened that my prey were human beings. I tried to view it like that, and it did help.

Initially, we lived in a deserted house on the outskirts of Seattle. We had to change houses on a regular basis, as one by one, they were trashed by my out-of-control companions. We kept to the basements in the daytime to avoid the sunlight leaking through the windows upstairs, just as vampires were supposed to do. Avoid the sun at all costs.

As I settled into my new state of being I began to study those around me, cataloging every detail about vampires. Yes, we had to avoid the sun, but I noted quickly that we did not follow all the traditional vampire myths.

For a start, none of us slept in coffins, or at all, actually. Also, I didn't remember any legends of red eyed vampires, so that was something new. And I had never known that we could be pulled apart and put back together again and suffer no ill effects, as long as you could find all the pieces.

The only thing that destroyed us completely, apart from sunlight, was fire, and I had ample opportunity to study exactly how that happened in my first few months of this life.

The beings around me were less controlled than I was, and whenever someone new was added into the mix, which happened about every week, they would make it worse. One particular guy, Raoul, frequently destroyed people, especially if they challenged him for supremacy in the group.

Fortunately, my quiet tendencies meant that people didn't pay attention to me … most of the time.

One day, Raoul decided to take exception. It was then that I discovered something useful.

"Hey you, over there!"

I was sitting quietly in the corner observing Raoul lord it over the others, and turned my eyes to him warily. "What?"

"What? What?" he snarled. "You don't talk to me like that!"

He came over to me and looked up from where he stood. I could tell that the fact he was a few inches shorter than me annoyed him. "Who do you think you are? You think if you sit over here quietly all the time you don't have to show your allegiance to me?"

I felt the anger build in me. If Raoul wanted my allegiance, he would be waiting a long time.

I knew words wouldn't be any good. So I merely thought at him._ Leave me alone._

Then the strangest thing happened. His face turned green and he looked like he was gagging. So did two other vampires who were standing close to me. They all immediately moved away and left me alone.

That was fascinating.

I didn't know what it meant at first, so I began experimenting with it. Was it just thinking the words? It didn't seem to work with just that. It took the emotion behind the words; the desire to be left in peace. Once I had established that, I practiced using it on the people around me in different degrees, mentally noting the effects it had on each person.

It appeared that, along with the ability to kill people and put myself back together, and the super strength and speed, I had another ability. I could make people feel sick if they looked at me. The odd thing was, I was the only one who could do this. I was sure some of the other vampires would have used it if they could have, especially when they were being torn apart. So it was unique to me. I had numerous theories about why that was so, but it was difficult to prove any of them.

Whatever the reason, it was a handy talent to have. If anyone bothered me, I simply turned my ability on them and they left me alone. It not only gave me the solitude I craved, but it kept me alive while others around me were dying in pitched battles every other day. In fact, I kept it switched on all of our group pretty much all the time.

There was only one vampire in this crowd I didn't use my talent on.

I noticed Bree as soon as she arrived. Riley had come in one night, dumping her tiny body in a corner before leaving again. She lay there for days writhing and screaming. I had seen it enough by then to realize it was part of the process of being changed into a vampire.

I had studied it in some of the others. Gradually, Bree's skin was bleached white. With my strong vampire eyes, I could see the skin as it hardened to a consistency more like rock. Her eyes lost their normal colour and turned red, like the rest of us.

"Man, this one is noisy!" Kevin remarked. He was one of Raoul's goons.

Fortunately, by the time she'd finished transforming Riley was back. He took her out to hunt himself, but left a few minutes after they returned.

It didn't take long before a battle broke out between Raoul and one of the other new vampires. That one was larger than him and it was clear he wasn't used to playing second fiddle to anyone.

Raoul gathered around him with his gang. "Hey, boys. This guy thinks _he's_ the boss."

The new vampire curled back his lip and snarled. "Yeah, and you'd better take note of it, my friend."

"Why? You think you can take me on?" spat Raoul.

The new vampire had even less control than Raoul. He screamed his hatred at the vampire and launched himself on him, but Raoul had friends. Kevin and one of the others grabbed one arm each and twisted them off the new vampire, as Raoul reached in and tore off his head. Laughing, he pulled out a lighter and sparked a fire on the couch, before throwing the head onto it. The rest of the newbie's body followed quickly.

Bree's eyes widened in terror, and she dived behind the other couch, where I was sitting. I resented her presence at first, and I could hear her retching as I turned my gift on her. But then Raoul, excited by the show of his strength, turned his eyes towards the noise.

"What is that? A little baby crying? Aw, boo hoo!"

He came in my direction, but I snarled. I didn't want him near me. He opened his mouth to snarl at me when I hit him with a blast of my ability. Soon Bree's groans were drowned out by his own. He and the others backed away.

I sighed and stopped targeting the little one. She immediately fell silent. I shrugged. As long as she stayed that way, she could hide behind my couch.

Bree regularly cowered behind my couch or anywhere else she could find to hide as she tried to beat the odds and stay alive. I began to extend my gift towards her. At first, I was just experimenting to see if I could include someone other than myself under its protection. It seemed that I could. In spite of her size and relative vulnerability, Bree stayed alive.

After that, I would frequently use my ability to shield her from the others. I had never liked bullies; although my human memories had faded, I could remember being picked on when I was as small as Bree. So if she couldn't make herself invisible, I would do it for her.

It wasn't attraction or anything else that made me do it. At least, I didn't think so. I liked her, but nothing more than that. As time went on, I could see her getting attached to a guy named Diego. He had been the first vampire I'd noticed after Riley. He had been a little crazy at first, but so had all of us. As our first full year of vampire life drew closer, he settled down, but he could take care of himself better than Bree, so I hadn't paid him much attention. But at least he and Bree provided some individuals that weren't hell bent on destroying everything in sight, unlike everybody else.

In spite of their presence, I had no desire to hang around. I didn't trust Riley. He sometimes spoke of the vampire who had created us – we didn't know her name and never saw her – and I had come to the conclusion that she must have created us for a reason. He seemed to be steeling us for something, what with all his instructions and insistence that we follow his specific set of rules.

But if we were gods, why did we have rules at all? If we were so powerful, why did Riley insist that we had to keep our existence secret from humans? I was sure we weren't the only vampires around, so I wondered why such godlike creatures stayed out of sight of humans. What did we care about them? What could they do to us?

I had no answers and I didn't trust the weak, evasive replies Riley gave to these questions, so I followed the rules, certain that there was a good reason for them. All this subterfuge did not endear me to Riley, but nothing did that. He was the reason I was forced to put up with this crowd night after night. I had considered taking off a number of times. Some of the vampires in our group had just disappeared. Riley claimed that they'd been caught out in the sun, but I wondered if they'd just decided to leave. I didn't blame them, but I wanted as much information as possible about us before I left.

It all came to a head one evening after I had been a vampire for about ten months. Riley had been out as usual, leaving us alone in our latest home – a basement in yet another deserted house – with losers like Jen and Kristie. They were almost as bad as Raoul. Of course someone died. Bree had gone out with Diego so she missed the tearing and burning as they killed the newbie, but she noticed the ashes as soon as she came in.

I was surprised when she returned without Diego. Only twenty-four hours before, they had stayed out all day in each other's company. Riley had worried that they had been destroyed by the sun, but they had hidden together in an underground cave, she said. So it was unusual for her to come back without him, and the look in her eyes made me wonder if something had happened. But I allowed her access to my quiet corner as usual, and did not question her. If she wanted to talk to me, I assumed she would, even though she never had before.

Riley returned not long after. His expression, even when he walked in, was severe.

Then he saw the pile of ashes and he flipped.

It wasn't like usual, either. I'd grown used the sight of him ranting and raving when one of us killed another, but this was something else. His eyes were wide with an almost insane gleam about them and his lips were pulled back from his teeth in a perpetual snarl. He ripped a speaker off the wall and hurled it across the room. Then he leaped straight over to where Raoul stood – it wasn't surprising that he'd blame him for the smoking remains – and grabbed him by the throat.

"I wasn't even here!" Raoul told him, looking scared. That was new. And for once, he was telling the truth.

Then Raoul journeyed across the room in the same way the speaker had gone. Riley didn't stop there. He ripped Kevin's hand off – not that he didn't have it coming – and beat him with it.

"What's _wrong_ with you?" he screamed. "Why are you all so _stupid_?"

He made a grab for another kid, but that brought him too close to me for my liking. He quickly backed away as I let him know that I didn't want him there.

But it didn't stop his rage. "Do _any_ of you have a brain?"

He continued to tear his way through a few more vampires. He didn't do anything that couldn't be repaired, but he made his presence felt. I could see everyone watching him warily. Bree was cowering in the corner, her eyes wide.

Finally, he took a deep breath and calmed himself.

"Listen to me!" he spat. "All our lives depend on you listening to what I'm saying now and _thinking_! We are all going to _die_. Every one of us, you and me, too, if you can't act like you have brains for a few short days!"

That caught my interest. Were we getting to the point now? The reason why I had been turned into a vampire and kept in one house after another, with an ever changing group?

"It's time for you to grow up and take responsibility for yourselves. Do you think you get to live like this for _free_? That all the blood in Seattle doesn't have a _price_?"

This made sense. What was the price, I wondered?

Unfortunately, then Riley started trying to get us to feel like a team by appointing leaders. And who did he pick? Raoul and Kristie. Sure, like that would work. I rolled my eyes and waited for more information.

Finally, he got to the point. "We have an enemy." He paused for dramatic effect. I snorted under my breath. "A few of you might be smart enough to have realized that if we exist, so do other vampires. Other vampires who are older, smarter … more talented. Other vampires who _want our blood_!"

That got everyone's attention. Raoul made a show of being furious, like he was claiming Seattle as his turf. His groupies echoed his hiss.

I watched Riley carefully as he continued. "That's right. Seattle was once theirs, but they moved on a long time ago. Now they know about us and they are jealous of the easy blood they used to have here. They know it belongs to us now, but they want to take it back. They are coming after what they want. One by one, they'll hunt us down! We'll burn while they feast!"

A rumble of fear ran throughout his audience. He went on, telling us about our need to work together as a team in order to fight the vampires who were coming to kill us and take Seattle for their own.

The more he spoke, the less I believed him. Were we expected to think that Riley had only found about this danger overnight? How did he discover this information? Who could have told him? Someone who knew this other group? If so, then why did they warn him? And if he knew that this had originally been someone else's territory, why hadn't he told us about it before?

Riley continued to rant until he had worked everyone up into a frenzy. I didn't credit anything else he said until he started talking about our enemies. Then I listened harder.

"They are a much older coven than we are. They've been around for hundreds of years, and they've survived that long for a reason. They are crafty and they are skilled and they are coming to retake Seattle with confidence – because they've heard the only ones they'll have to fight for it are a bunch of disorganized children who will do half their work for them!"

And how exactly did Riley know all this? Did he have a direct line to their thoughts?

"This is how they see us," Riley continued, "but that's because they can't see us _together_. Together, we can _crush_ them. If they could see all of us, side by side, fighting together, they would be terrified. And that's how they're going to see us. Because we're not going to wait for them to show up here and start picking us off. We're going to ambush them. In four days."

We were going to ambush them in a place that was unfamiliar to all of us, rather than wait for them to arrive on familiar territory? We were going to take the fight to them? And why was that, exactly?

And only four days? If Riley though that this group was going to work together in four days, he was crazy!

"It's the last thing they'll expect." That was Riley's best explanation for us taking such a risk. "All of us – _together_ – waiting for them. And I've saved the best part for last. There are only _seven_ of them."

Everyone was incredulous at that. Why would only seven vampires be such a danger? There were about twenty of us. We would outnumber them almost three to one. But I didn't have enough data to understand vampires fully at this stage. Perhaps, if those seven were well trained, or even worked as a team, which we certainly did not, then they would have the edge. Experience and instinct could be a dangerous combination.

We had plenty of instinct, but when it came to experience, we had next to none.

Riley looked at the skeptical faces around him. "Hey, I wasn't joking when I said this coven is dangerous. They are wise and … devious. Underhanded. We will have power on our side; they will have deception. If we play it their way, they _will_ win. But if we take it to them on our terms …"

But would it be on our terms when we were on _their_ turf?

As usual, Raoul was all for action without the need for thought. "Let's go now. Let's get 'em out of the picture fast."

"Slow down, moron. Rushing into things blindly isn't going to help us win."

It was the first thing Riley had said that I agreed with.

Kristie was a little more circumspect, although I wondered how long that would last. "Tell us everything we need to know about them."

Riley hesitated. I wondered if he was preparing to lie outright or just compose a usual half-truth. "All right, where to begin? I guess the first thing you need to know is … that you don't know everything there is to know about vampires yet."

I knew that all too well, but I didn't think Riley was going to tell us very much. Only what would benefit his cause.

"I didn't want to overwhelm you in the beginning," he said by way of explanation. I was sure he couldn't see me rolling my eyes. "You have a little bit of experience with what we call 'talents'. We have Fred."

I didn't appreciate all the heads that turned in my direction. They were trying to, at any rate.

_No_.

I wouldn't let them look. Bree was my usual exception, but everyone else I shut out. Sure enough, they turned away as quickly as possible. Riley's expression looked particularly pained. That would teach him to single me out.

"Yes, well, there are some vampires who have gifts beyond the usual super strength and super senses. You've seen one aspect in … our coven. Gifts are rare – one in fifty, maybe – but every one is different. There's a huge range of gifts out there, and some of them are more powerful than others."

Now I sat forward again, although I was pretty sure no one but Bree was able to see it. Was what Riley was saying true? It was clear I could do something that no one else here could do. As that was an undeniable fact, then it was plausible that Riley was telling the truth. There were other vampires who could also do things. Things I could not do.

"This enemy coven," Kristie asked. "They're talented, right?"

Riley's lip curled. "This coven is dangerously talented. They have a mind reader."

My joke about Riley being able to read this coven's mind came back to me. Was that kind of gift even possible? I wouldn't have thought so, but I couldn't draw on much more than my human experiences. I knew it wasn't possible for a human, but vampires were obviously beyond that.

Could some vampires have the ability to read minds? Possibly. But it didn't follow that I believed what Riley was telling me. He was still speaking too carefully, like he was reciting a well learned script.

Riley continued to work everyone up over the mind reader. "This is why we've been so careful – me, and the one who created you."

I wasn't sure that any careful behaviour on their part would have been for our benefit.

"You don't know her name, and you don't know what she looks like. This protects us all. If they'd stumbled across one of you alone, they wouldn't realize that you were connected to her, and they might have let you live. If they knew you were part of her coven, there would be no delay in your execution."

That didn't even make sense. If this coven was as devious as Riley was suggesting, and as desperate to reclaim Seattle for themselves, they would kill any vampire as a matter of course. The only person who was protected by all this secrecy was our creator herself.

"Of course, it doesn't matter now that they've decided to move on Seattle. We will surprise them on their way in, and we will annihilate them. Done. And then not only is the city all ours, other covens will know not to mess with us. We won't have to be so careful to cover our tracks anymore. As much blood as you want, for everyone. Hunting every night. We'll move right into the city and _we will rule it_."

If this was the case, why wasn't this other, dangerous, underhanded coven doing that where they were? Why weren't there other covens worldwide doing that? If destroying one coven meant we could rule Seattle, why didn't humans know vampires existed?

Everyone else was enthusiastic at Riley's pronouncement. Except Bree. I could see her sitting quietly in the corner, processing all this. I wondered what she made of it.

I would do my best to stop her becoming involved. I was sure it wouldn't end well.

Riley continued to rant and rave about the need for unity and threatened us with violent death from our creator if we dared disobey. I believed him less with every word.

"Now, get some teams figured out so that we can work in groups. Kristie, Raoul, get your kids together and then divvy up the rest evenly. No fighting! Show me you can do this rationally. Prove yourselves."

Kristie and Raoul immediately began fighting over numbers. Unity? Hah! I blocked myself from them to make sure they wouldn't try to draft me. They moved around me as though I wasn't there, which suited me just fine.

But something else concerned me more than them.

Riley was approaching Bree. I could tell she was nervous about it. I was pretty sure she also noticed that it was difficult for him to approach her because of me. I tried to stretch my gift out to her a bit more, to make her just as invisible as me, but it didn't work as much as I wanted it to.

"Bree? I promised Diego I'd give you a message. He said to tell you it was a ninja thing. Does that make any sense to you?"

It didn't make any sense to me, but it caught Bree's interest. "Diego?"

I frowned. Bree had gone out with Diego and returned alone, and now Riley was claiming to have a message from him. Where was he? I was suddenly interested in what Riley was saying.

I could tell that Riley was still feeling the effects of my gift, because he was having trouble looking at Bree. I knew it didn't mean he was lying; he was too skilled a liar to dodge her eyes because of that.

"Can we talk?" Riley smiled and jerked his head at the door. "I double-checked all the windows. The first floor is totally dark and safe."

Safe for whom? Not for Bree. Was he planning to lead her up there and let her get burned by the sun streaming in the windows? But she seemed willing to go with Riley. I was worried that mentioning Diego was just to give Riley some leverage with her, although I didn't see why he would want to harm her when he was intent in turning us into a fighting force. Sure, she wasn't that big, but she was another number. I was pretty sure that's all we were to Riley.

Unable to help myself, once they had passed through the door I wandered over to it, opened it and followed them. I kept my gift around me to keep them from seeing me. If Riley tried to do something to her, hopefully I could block him, although I hadn't tested whether or not my skill worked through structures like walls.

When they had reached the first floor, Riley led her through to the garage. It was only then that he began speaking. His voice was low, but I could still hear it.

"You're brave," he said. "Or really trusting. I thought it would be more work to get you upstairs with the sun up."

I guessed it was the former. Bree didn't trust too many people in this group, and she had never seemed to trust Riley. I couldn't hear her moving at all. Perhaps she was frozen with fear. I had noticed that it was a common response when a vampire was nervous.

"So you and Diego are pretty tight, right?"

"He saved my life," Bree responded.

"He's the best. The smartest kid I've got."

Yes, Riley did treat Diego as a kind of second in command. That had never endeared the kid to me. But maybe, if Bree thought he was okay …

"We had a little meeting about the situation," Riley continued. "We agreed that we need some surveillance. Going in blind is too dangerous. He's the only one I trust to scout ahead."

I scowled. While I knew that going in blind was too dangerous, going in at all, on their territory, was madness. If Riley had really let Diego go off on his own to scout ahead he couldn't think too much of him.

Unless he was lying.

"Wish I had two of him! Raoul's got too short a fuse and Kristie is too self-absorbed to get the big picture, but they're the best I've got, and I'll have to make do. Diego said you were smart, too."

Bree didn't comment on anything Riley said, so he continued.

"I need your help with Fred. Wow, that kid is strong! I couldn't even look at him tonight."

I smiled.

"Imagine if our enemies can't even look at us. It will be so _easy_!"

So that's what this was about. Riley knew that I protected Bree to some degree, and was hoping she could persuade me to join the fight. He clearly knew I wasn't going to do it for him. He had never done me any favors. And he seemed to think winning or losing could come down to my involvement.

I wondered if that was true. Certainly, it would help if the enemy couldn't see us, but could I keep this up under the pressure of a fight? It would be interesting to see.

But I didn't want to test it. After all, it didn't follow that Riley's enemies were also my enemies, no matter what he'd told me about them.

I wondered if Bree would agree to help him. I didn't think so. I hoped not. It would be terrible if it turned out she was nothing better than Riley's gofer.

"You spend a lot of time with him," Riley went on when it was clear there would be no response from her. Her silence reassured me. She certainly didn't seem keen to help him.

"Nobody bothers me there," Bree said. "It's not easy."

So my skill still affected her to some degree? Or perhaps she was talking about at first, when I used it on her just as much as everyone else. It was only her persistence in entering my quiet corner, and the fact that she kept it quiet, that had made me let her in at all. If we both got out of this alive, it would be interesting to run some more tests on it with her help.

"Smart, like Diego said."

"Where is Diego?"

"We don't have time to waste. I sent him south the second I find out what was coming. If our enemies decide to attack early, we need the advance warning. Diego will meet up with us when we move against them."

Bree didn't answer him. I didn't think she believed him any more than I did.

Riley's voice was the one to break the silence. "Diego wanted me to tell you something. Sounded like nonsense to me. He said, 'Tell Bree I've got the handshake figured out. I'll show her in four days, when we meet up.' I have no idea what that means. Do you?"

Riley's delivery sounded too scripted to me. I wondered if Bree picked up on it. I was pretty sure that what he said would mean something to her, and I wondered if Diego was really her friend if he had given that information up so easily.

"Maybe," Bree replied. "He did say something about needing a secret handshake. For the underwater cave. Some kind of password. He was just kidding around, though. I'm not sure what he means now."

Riley chuckled. "Poor Diego."

"What?"

"I think that kid likes you a lot more than you like him."

"Oh."

"Don't write him off yet, Bree. He's the best, like I said. Give him a chance."

"Sure."

I was certain there was only one reason for all this friendly advice, and Riley returned to it quickly. "See if you can talk to Fred. Make sure he's on board."

"I'll do what I can."

I didn't think there was much commitment in Bree's voice, but Riley didn't seem to notice, or maybe he just figured it was the best he was going to get. "Great. I'll pull you aside before we leave, and you can tell me how it went. I'll keep it casual, not like tonight. I don't want him to feel like I'm spying on him."

_Too late_.

As soon as I heard them move in my direction I slipped quietly back to the basement. By the time they returned I was in my usual spot. I removed my gift from influencing Bree, and with a shy smile, she sat in the corner near me. But she didn't say a word about what Riley had said.

Riley then set about making the rest of out coven work in _teams_; an uphill battle, to be sure. None of them paid any attention to either Bree or myself, thanks to my gift. If I could have picked any talent for myself it would have been the power to make myself invisible.

And it wasn't that bad, including someone else. Bree seemed like a nice kid. I wondered if she'd be open to the idea of disappearing with me.

I felt it was unlikely Bree would come without Diego, and Diego hadn't returned yet. That concerned me. If he was really doing surveillance, as Riley had said, I didn't know if he'd get out alive. Only once did Riley mention him, when Kevin asked where he was.

"Diego's with _her_," Riley said. "Surveillance."

I didn't necessarily believe Riley, but I didn't think being with our creator would make him much safer.

For three days and two nights we did nothing but train. The daylight hours were the hardest, as we all had to stay in the basement. Now Riley was around so much there were no deaths. I was amused to see how he made sure any removed limbs were returned to their owners. He was certainly making sure we all stayed together, in the literal sense.

He'd also returned to an even temper, with no more blustering and threats. Perhaps this was because everyone was now focussed on exactly what he wanted them to focus on. I still wondered why, but I wasn't sure I was ever going to find that out.

His training did work, to some extent, anyway. _Work together, watch your back, don't go at him head-on_ was his most common mantra. We must have heard it a thousand times a day. The "working together" part was the hardest one for everyone to manage. But I still didn't know if this group would ever be a threat to a more experienced group of vampires, even if there were only seven of them.

Eventually, the repetition got to me and I brought out a pack of cards I always had with me and started to play solitaire. Bree watched me. Apparently she was equally bored. Once I realized I had her interest, we played rummy for a while. I was surprised how nice it was to engage someone like that. But Bree was easy to like. She was quiet and unobtrusive and seemed reasonably intelligent.

As time wore on, I could see Riley's obsession with the fight beginning to wear on some, especially the younger in our group. Bree kept swallowing. She was getting thirsty. I'd noticed that I could manage my thirst for longer periods at a time the older I got, so it wasn't so bad for me, but some of the others were growing restless.

Riley must have seen it too and realized he would lose control if he kept going too much longer without hunting, so he finally let them stop.

"You've done well," he said. "Tonight, you get a reward. Drink up, because tomorrow you're going to want all your strength."

Everyone seemed relieved, although no one asked the question that was on my mind. After all the secrecy he'd drummed into us when it came to hunting, was he going to unleash us all on the city at the same time? If he did, it might lend weight to his statement about us ruling the city, but it didn't seem likely.

"I say _want_ and not _need_ for a reason," Riley continued. "I think you guys have got this. You've stayed smart and worked hard. Our enemies aren't going to know what's hit them!"

Everybody growled enthusiastically in response, but I thought Riley was overplaying it. Certainly they were working better than they had been, but was that going to last when they were fighting the enemy for real?

To my surprise, Raoul picked up on something. "Um, you mean tomorrow _night_, right, boss?"

"Right," Riley said, a strange smile on his face. I raised an eyebrow. What was he hiding? Bree looked at me. She'd noticed it, too.

"You ready for your reward?" Riley asked.

Everyone roared their approval, and this was one moment when I did intend to be involved. No matter that my thirst wasn't as bad as it used to be, no matter that I didn't intend to fight tomorrow, I still wanted to see what Riley was up to.

"Tonight you get a taste of what our world will be like when our competition is out of the picture. Follow me!" With that, Riley headed off into the night. Instantly, any unity fell to pieces, as both Raoul and Kristie's groups fought each other in their desperation to follow Riley.

He noticed. "Don't make me change my mind! You can all go thirsty. I don't care!"

At his threat, Kristie's group fell in behind Raoul's.

I looked back at Bree, who was waiting with me, and gestured that she should go first. She started a little at my courtesy, but headed off after the others. We stayed back quite a distance from them, following only their scent. I was still trying to work out how Riley intended to feed us all in one go. Was he really going to let us overrun Seattle?

Sure enough, we stayed in quiet, deserted places. Nowhere near any of the population; not yet, anyway. I was sure that was deliberate. Riley was still being careful. We couldn't kill just anyone.

When we reached the strait Riley paused. "Don't hold back. I want you well fed and strong – at your peak. Now … let's go have some fun."

We all swam underwater, with Bree and I keeping where we could see the others now that we couldn't follow their scent. I wasn't happy with them in such close proximity. Was this some kind of trap? I kept a close eye out for trouble and kept my gift trained on the two of us.

When we surfaced things made a little more sense. We were in the ferry channels. I could see one chugging in the direction of the shore.

"There she is," Riley told us, gesturing towards it with a wave of his hand. "Give me a minute. When the power goes out, she's all yours."

An enthusiastic murmur ran throughout the coven. I narrowed my eyes. The power didn't need to be out for us to attack; it wasn't like it would give us an edge over the humans – they wouldn't be able to fight us no matter how light it was. The only reason I could think of for Riley to switch off the power was so that no one on the ferry could alert the mainland. So much for no more secrecy. That was why he'd picked a ferry. I was sure we'd sink it when we were done, and the humans on the mainland would be none the wiser about what had happened. Although I wondered what they'd make of the condition of the bodies …

As soon as the lights were out on the ferry everyone was moving. Bree and I kept to the back, although I still wanted to feed, so I didn't want to wait until there was no one left. I could see Bree was also getting restless.

I ignored the screams erupting around me as we boarded the vessel. I'd come to terms with the fact that I had to kill people to survive. People were just another link in the food chain, and I was above them.

I killed until I was full, then I watched the others. All of them were feeding ravenously; even Bree. Like I'd said – she was young. I made sure I kept myself hidden so that no one would view me as a danger to their kills. Surprisingly, none of our kind died. There were so many humans to share around that no one felt they had to protect their kill.

Some of the humans tried to escape in the water. Riley narrowed his eyes as he noticed them swimming away.

"Kevin! Jen!"

These two vampires were the closest to him, and they didn't seem inclined to come at his call, but he nodded his head at the figures in the channel. "They're all yours. Make sure no one makes it back."

"Sure thing, boss," Kevin said. Jen was already over the side.

Yes, no one could survive this night. They might tell other humans what they had seen.

When every human on board was dead, we were all jubilant. Kristie yelled, "That was amazing. Three cheers for Riley!"

The others echoed her call, just as Jen and Kevin returned from their hunt. "Got 'em all, boss." Jen called to Riley. He nodded, satisfied. I bet he was. He'd fed us all well, and the general population would be none the wiser.

Bree started looking around. I thought she might be looking for me, but I kept my skill trained on her to see how she would respond. As I had expected, she stopped and frowned when she found she couldn't focus on my corner, and started walking towards me. I smiled. Once she was close, I withdrew my gift from her and she smiled at me. I smiled back, but then returned to watching Riley.

Now we were fed, I was sure we would get down to the business end of proceedings. What would happen? I couldn't be sure. But I would stay, for now, to see if I could figure out what Riley was up to. Hopefully, I wouldn't stay too long.


	2. Chapter 2

Bree and I kept a reasonable distance from the others as we ran back. I was tempted to head off now and wondered if I should mention it to her, in case she wanted to come with me. But I had the feeling she'd want to wait for Diego.

Was it worth waiting to see if she would come? I thought so. Although I'd always liked solitude, she seemed to like it too. And I knew she'd be safer with me than that crowd. No, I would wait and see what happened after we got back, then I would hopefully have time to talk to Bree and maybe Diego too, and stop them joining this foolhardy attack.

Everyone was on a high once we made it back to the house, glorying in a night of reasonably free hunting. There was no fighting, but Riley spent some time trying to get them to focus back on the job at hand, a job that was looking less and less possible for us by the moment. For even though every vampire around me was grateful for what Riley had given them, they weren't inclined to go back to the restraint Riley had insisted on before.

By the morning, Riley managed to get them to focus again. He stood halfway up the basement stairs, looking around at us, his face earnest. "Three things. First, we want to be sure we get the right coven. If we accidentally run across another clan and slaughter them, we'll tip our hand."

Would we really stand a chance of running into another coven between Seattle and wherever we were going? Were there so many, even in the greater Seattle area?

"We want our enemies overconfident and unprepared. There are two things that mark this coven, and they're pretty hard to miss. One, they look different – they have yellow eyes."

A murmur ran throughout the group. It was difficult, though, to tell if Riley was lying about that. I only had limited experience with vampires, so I couldn't be sure.

Even Raoul seemed to doubt Riley's words. "Yellow?"

Riley nodded. "There's a lot of the vampire world out there that you haven't encountered yet. I told you these vampires were old. Their eyes are weaker than ours – yellowed with age. Another advantage to our side."

I narrowed my eyes. Even if Riley's story about the yellow eyes was true, I doubted his explanation for it. I'd seen nothing to indicate that our state of being could deteriorate in any way. Again, my experience was limited, but I'd conducted some tests on my own body, and every result contradicted Riley's statement.

"But other old vampires exist, so there is another way that we'll know them for sure … and this is where the dessert I mentioned comes into play." Riley smiled at us. "This is going to be hard to process. I don't understand it, but I've seen it myself. These old vampires have gone so _soft_ that they actually keep – as a member of their coven – a pet human."

Looking at the incredulous faces around me, I could see I wasn't the only one who didn't believe that. Bree looked startled. Why would a coven of vampires keep a human as a pet, unless they had one regularly until they were tired of it and then fed on it? That might make sense. However, although I knew that my thirst was less severe now than it had been when I was first created, I couldn't imagine any vampire waiting more than a couple of weeks before killing a human. It would be too tempting.

Riley looked around at our faces and didn't seem surprised at our expressions. "I know – hard to swallow. But it's true. We'll know it's definitely them because a human girl will be with them."

"Like … how?" Kristie asked. "You mean they carry meals around with them or something?"

"No, it's always the same girl, just the one, and they don't plan to kill her. I don't know how they manage it, or why. Maybe they just like to show off their self-control. Maybe they think it makes them look stronger. It makes no sense to me."

The same girl? They didn't even intend to kill her? Why would a vampire even bother? I figured the girl would have to be their prisoner – what human would voluntarily stay with a coven of vampires? So maybe they liked to show their control over her. Or maybe she was hoping they'd change her into a vampire too. After all, there were a few in this group who enjoyed the strength and power it gave them. Maybe that's what she wanted.

Not that I believed it. It was the most ridiculous thing that had come out of Riley's mouth yet.

But he seemed determined to convince us she was real. "I've seen her," he declared. "More than that, I've smelled her."

With a conspiratorial smile, Riley drew a ziplock back out from under his jacket. There was a red piece of clothing inside it.

"I've done some recon in the past few week, checking the yellow-eyes out as soon as they got near the area. I watch out for my kids." If that was the case, what was Diego doing? "Anyway, when I could tell that they were moving on us, I grabbed this –" he held up the bag, "– to help us track them. I want you all to get a lock on this scent."

He handed the bag to Raoul, who opened it and took a whiff. He glanced up at Riley, unmistakeable greed mingling with his surprise.

"I know," Riley said. "Amazing, right?"

Raoul passed the bag to Kevin, and it was gradually passed around to everyone. I wasn't sure if they would remember I was here and let me smell. Bree moved away from me to see if she could get a whiff of it. Some kid was about to pass it on when she held out her hand and hissed. He looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time – and it probably was the first time in a while, considering my ability – and he gave her the bag.

Bree's eyes widened as she inhaled the scent, licking her lips. That made me even more curious.

Bree looked around to see if anyone else wanted the bag. I wasn't sure if she'd give it to me or not, but Riley caught her eye and jerked his head in my direction. I was pretty sure that Bree would have given it to me anyway, but she looked reluctant after Riley's action. Maybe she was smelling a trap, just like I did.

But my curiosity was overriding my caution. Bree's face looked sick as she tried to make her way back to me, but the look faded as I allowed her within my protective circle once more. Then she handed me the bag.

I brought it up to my nose and took a whiff. Now I understood the looks on everyone's faces. I had never smelled a human with blood as delicious as this. I could almost imagine the taste …

But my brain kicked into gear in the same moment. This was, I was sure, exactly the reaction Riley had been hoping for. This would be the ultimate temptation for anyone planning to hold back from the fight. There was no doubt in my mind that this girl was at the center of some kind of trap.

I gave the bag back to Bree and our eyes met. She was thinking along similar lines, I was sure. She tossed the bag back to the others, and I returned to watching them. Sure enough, everyone was now distracted at the thought of winning the girl for themselves. Riley clapped his hands together to get us to refocus.

"Okay, so there's the dessert I was talking about. The girl will be with the yellow-eyes. And whoever gets to her first gets dessert. Simple as that."

The reaction from our group was to be expected. Competitive growls erupted all around. Raoul and Kristie were already eyeing each other as the most likely competition. And any unity or teamwork we'd developed in the past few days was falling apart before our eyes.

Riley didn't seem too concerned about it, though. He was sitting back, as though his work was done. But then he sat forward again, and looked uncomfortable. "And the last thing. This will probably be even harder to accept, so I'll show you. I won't ask you to do anything I won't do. Remember that – I'm with you guys every step of the way."

Riley had everyone's attention now, including mine. I watched his face for every flicker of emotion, anything to tell me where this was going.

"There are so many things you have yet to learn about being a vampire. Some of them make more sense than others. This is one of those things that won't sound right at first, but I've experienced it myself, and I'll show you." He looked around at everyone before going on. "Four times a year, the sun shines at a certain indirect angle. During that one day, four times a year, it is safe … for us to be outside in the daylight."

Four times a year … what? Did he think we were fools? That was absolute trash. It was scientifically impossible!

No one else was buying it either. We all stood stock still. What was Riley trying to convince us to do? Risk our lives?

I had wondered about the sunlight's ability to harm us, considering how hard our bodies appeared to be, but I hadn't been game to test it. After all, it was in every legend. And although not all of those had proven true, some of our own number had disappeared when they hadn't been home by daybreak. Perhaps Riley had been lying when he'd said the sunlight had killed them, but still …

There was no doubt that Riley was lying about this. I didn't know why he had even bothered to present such a weak explanation as an indirect angle of sunlight. But then, given the average intelligence of this crowd, he might be able to convince them. I glanced at Bree. She didn't look like she believed it anymore than I did.

Riley looked around at us. "It's right for you to be terrified at the thought. The reason you are all still alive is that you paid attention when I told you to be careful. You got home on time, you didn't make mistakes. You let that fear make you smart and cautious. I don't expect you to put that intelligent fear aside easily. I don't expect you to run out that door on my word. But … I do expect you to follow me out."

He glanced behind my head. I had no idea why. Was he trying to look at me, but couldn't because of my gift? If so, then he shouldn't have been able to look this way at all. While I continued listening, I cataloged what I knew was on the wall behind me. Some old photos, a mirror and a clock. What had he been looking at? Was he keeping an eye on the time? Did he have a deadline to meet? "Watch me. Listen to me. Trust me. When you see that I'm okay, believe your eyes. The sun on this one day does have some interesting effects on our skin. You'll see. It won't hurt you in any way. I wouldn't do anything to put you guys in unnecessary danger. You know that."

_Yeah, right._ But if he was going to go first … This would be interesting.

Riley began walking up the stairs. The others began looking at one another, and Kristie was the first to speak. She didn't sound enthusiastic about following him. "Riley, can't we just wait –"

"Just pay attention," Riley snapped without stopping. "This gives us a big advantage. The yellow-eyes know all about this day, but they don't know that _we_ know."

He reached the top of the stairs, opened the door, and walked out. We couldn't see any light at all seeping through the windows in the kitchen there; we'd made sure there wasn't. However, everyone moved uncomfortably as Riley continued through it. Everyone but Bree. She was looking after Riley, disgust on her face.

"It takes most young vampires a while to embrace this exception," Riley's voice came back to us. "Those who aren't cautious about the daylight don't last long."

I was cautious about it, that's for sure. And with good reason. And I didn't trust Riley an inch. There was no way I was walking out into the sunlight just because he said so. Could this be some kind of trap? Trick us into going out and then watch us die? Maybe it took a few minutes to take effect, and he would duck back in before we could make it.

And if he was lying and we were about to die, what was I going to do about it? I couldn't go anywhere now, not with the sun out there. Would my skill hold Riley at bay till night returned? If he was determined to kill me, would he get past it?

I glanced at Bree again. She must have seen the reluctance on my face. To my surprise she didn't look worried in the least.

"It's okay," she whispered. "The sun's not going to hurt us."

_You trust him?_ I mouthed back, incredulous.

_No way._

So did Bree have additional information? I wouldn't have thought that likely, but then I remembered that, not long ago, she and Diego had stayed out the whole day. Diego had claimed they'd hid in a cave. But what if …?

Whatever the case. I trusted her to tell me the truth.

"'Kay guys, I'm going out," Riley said. "You don't have to be afraid today, I promise."

We heard him open the front door.

"Relax, everybody," Riley called. "I am absolutely fine. No pain, no burn. Come and see. C'mon!"

No one moved a muscle. Was Riley being shielded from the light somehow, waiting for us to be picked off by it one by one? But Bree caught my eye and shook her head. She wasn't worried, not even a little. She must have inside information. There was no other explanation. Usually she was scared of everything.

Everyone was still cowering away from the stairs. Riley's voice came again, and I thought I could detect a note of impatience in it. "You know, I'm curious to see who is the bravest one of you. I have a good idea who the first person through that door is going to be, but I've been wrong before."  
Of course. Appeal to our egos. That was sure to get him a response. Sure enough, with a quick glance at the others, Raoul started making his way towards the stairs cautiously. No one else was keen to go with him, but he clicked his fingers and two of his henchmen fell in behind him, the fear clear on their faces.

"You can hear me," came Riley's voice again. "You know I'm not fried. Don't be a bunch of babies! You're _vampires_. Act like it."

But even Raoul didn't dare to go all the way out. Eventually Riley came back. "Look at me – I'm fine. Seriously! I'm embarrassed for you. C'mere, Raoul!"

He reached out and grabbed Kevin – Raoul was too fast for him – and dragged him outside. I tensed, waiting for the scream.

"Tell them, Kevin."

"I'm okay, Raoul!" came Kevin's voice. "Whoa, I'm all … shiny. This is crazy!"

"Well done, Kevin!"

He didn't _sound_ like he was harmed. But would it take a few moments to take effect? Again, I looked at Bree. She looked bored and even a trifle impatient herself, like she was tired of all this fuss about nothing and wanted to move past it.

Now that it seemed Kevin was okay, Raoul set his teeth and marched up the stairs. It wasn't long before I could hear him laughing with Kevin.

It took a lot more to get everyone out. I could hear Riley impatience increase. It wasn't long before the threats started.

I shot Bree a glance. It was clear she had known this already.

_Yes_, she mouthed at me, confirming it.

That was enough for me. I went up the stairs, Bree behind me.

As my body hit the sunlight, I couldn't believe the effect it had on it. My skin – everyone's skin – was sparkling, almost like diamonds were embedded under its surface. I looked at my hands, my arm, every inch of bare skin. It was the same all over.

That made sense to me. I had noted that our skin, our bodies, seemed more like stone than flesh now. Stronger than the average rock too. Perhaps the consistency was close to that of a diamond. The sun merely revealed it.

And if that was the case, I couldn't imagine that the sun would have a different effect on it on any given day. We would always sparkle. I knew that the "sun angle" thing was garbage, so that couldn't be the reason for it. No, I'd say this was normal.

That got me thinking again. Was this the real reason we had to keep out of the sunlight? That the reaction on our skin was far too noticeable? Again, it seemed that we were to keep the truth about what we were secret. This hypothesis fit in with everything else.

Eventually, Riley managed to drag everyone out, his impatience increasing the longer it took, although everyone else was too distracted by their appearance to notice. Yes, I was pretty sure he had a schedule to keep. And I had no intention of finding out why. Then Riley insisted on another practice session. Surprisingly, it didn't take them long to focus. I could see that they were growing eager at the idea of destroying the competition, not to mention getting their hands on the human girl.

I brought the full force of my gift to bear on Riley. I had no desire to participate. Sure enough, he didn't even seem to notice me or Bree.

"Okay," Riley instructed as they fought. "Once we've found them, this is what we do. We're going to divide in two and flank them. Raoul will charge them head-on, while Kristie's group will attack them from the side."

Neither Kristie or Raoul seemed to be listening to Riley, so intent were they on what they were doing. The fight itself interested them far more than strategy. They wanted to tear and burn, nothing more.

This was it. We'd fed, we were out in the sun. We had received out final instructions. There was no more reason for delay.

I knew that no one but Bree could see me, so I turned and began walking away as Riley gathered everyone together. When I was on the edge of the nearby forest I stopped and turned around. I looked at Riley. He seemed unaware that I'd moved. Good. Bree followed me.

"We leave now," Riley said to the others. "You're strong and you're ready. And you're thirsty for it, aren't you? You can feel the burn. You're ready for dessert. The yellow-eyes are coming in slowly from the south, feeding along the way, trying to get stronger. She's been monitoring them, so I know where to find them. She's going to meet us there, with Diego – " At this, he tried to look at Bree, but didn't seem to be able to locate her. That relieved me. I was shielding her successfully. I wondered if the effect would last as long for her as it did for me. "– and we will hit them like a tsunami. We will overwhelm them easily. And then we will celebrate." He smiled. "Someone's going to get a jump on the celebration. Raoul – give me that." Riley held out his hand, and Raoul reluctantly surrendered the bag with the shirt, which he had been trying to hide. I rolled my eyes.

Riley opened the bag and walked around with it. "Take another whiff, everybody, Let's get focussed!"

I didn't think inhaling a human's scent was going to aid them in fighting this other coven. It was only going to distract them. Maybe that was Riley's plan. Sure enough, everyone began to snarl. It hadn't taken long for the thirst to come back. Even I was feeling thirstier than usual. Maybe glutting ourselves had a negative impact on our ability to control it. I made a note of that.

I tried to get it under control. Unfortunately, I could smell the girl from here, and I could remember her scent with the crystal clarity of the photographic mind. But there was no way I was going to hunt her. There was no doubt in my mind that it would be a death sentence.

"Are you with me?" Riley yelled.

Everyone roared in response.

"Let's take them down, kids!"

Within seconds, every one of them was out of sight, except Bree. She looked as if she wanted to go, but I didn't think it was because she wanted to fight. I was pretty sure it was because of Diego, and I wondered what she'd do with the offer I was about to make. Would she refuse? I hoped not. Even if she did just want to fetch Diego, I wasn't sure she'd make it back, especially if he was in the thick of the fight.

"Riley won't be able to think of me for almost twenty minutes or so," I said. "I've been gauging the time. Even a good distance away, he'll feel sick if he tries to remember me."

She raised her eyebrows. "Really? That's cool."

I smiled at her. "I've been practicing, keeping track of the effects. I can make myself totally invisible now. No one can look at me if I don't want them to."

"I've noticed," she replied, glancing after the others again. "You're not going?"

I shook my head. "Of course not. It's obvious we're not being told what we need to know. I'm not going to be Riley's pawn."

She nodded.

"I was going to take off sooner, but I wanted to talk to you before I left, and there hasn't been a chance till now."

"I wanted to talk to you too," she said. "I thought you should know that Riley's been lying about the sun. This four-day thing is a total crock."

No joke.

"I think Shelly and Steve and the others figured it out too. And there's a lot more politics going on with this fight than he's told us. More than one set of enemies."

"I'm not surprised. And I'm out. I'm going to explore on my own, see the world. Or I _was_ going on my own, but then I thought maybe you might want to come too. You'd be pretty safe with me. No one will be able to follow us."

She looked in the direction the others had gone and shook her head. "I've got to get Diego."

I nodded. I thought that was what she'd say. "I get it. You know, if you're willing to vouch for him, you can bring him along. Seems like sometimes numbers come in handy."

She shuddered. "Yes." I wondered what she'd seen that had scared her. She noticed the way I was looking at her, and explained quickly. "Riley is lying about at least one more important thing. Be careful. We aren't supposed to let humans know about us. There are some kind of freaky vampires who stop covens when they get too obvious. I've seen them, and you don't want them to find you. Just keep out of sight in the day and hunt smart." She looked towards the south again. "I have to hurry!"

It was clear that Bree knew more than I did. And it was useful information. "Okay. Catch up to me if you want. I'd like to hear more. I'll wait for you in Vancouver for one day. I know the city. I'll leave you a trail in …" I chuckled as I realized the ideal location. "Riley Park. You can follow it to me. But after twenty-four hours I'm taking off."

"I'll get Diego and catch up to you."

"Good luck, Bree."

"Thanks, Fred! Good luck to you too. I'll see you!" She was already going.

"I hope so."

That had been almost twenty-four hours ago. I was still standing here in Queen Elizabeth Park waiting for her. I'd left a trail where Riley Park began, leading her towards me. I had hoped that she would come.

But I'd had major doubts. Whatever the truth of the matter was, I knew our coven had been rushing headlong into danger. It was always possible that Bree would not have been able to make it out if she was anywhere near it.

And what of Diego? I'd never paid a great deal of attention to him, but he seemed to have a degree of sense. And I'd noticed him becoming more and more attached to Bree. Would he really have gone off to do reconnaissance for Riley without telling her himself? The more I thought about it, the more I doubted it.

So something had happened to him before all this. What exactly? Nothing good, I was sure.

The morning was overcast, so there were only occasional shafts of sunlight coming through the clouds. I was still nervous at the sight of it, but I'd suffered no ill effects after my experience yesterday, even though I'd gotten out of the sun as quickly as possible and stayed out of it. It looked like it was going to rain soon. I wondered if cloudy weather would have any affect on my skin. I would have to document it –

I stopped mid-thought as I heard a sound. Someone was approaching. More than one someone.

Whoever it was, they were moving too quietly to be human. I would have noticed the clumsy, loud tread of anyone normal. But I wasn't sure it was Bree, either. I sniffed the breeze, but couldn't catch any scent. Whoever they were, they were approaching from upwind. That unsettled me somewhat. Were they doing it because they knew I was here, or was it coincidence?

Was there any such thing? I pulled my gift around me and settled in to watch.

They had been coming through the bushes, but they turned out onto the sidewalk before they reached me.

Both were roughly the same height and blond, although the hair of one was lighter than the other. But before I could take in anything else, I froze. On the honey blond male I could see a multitude of crescent shaped scars. They crisscrossed his visible skin in every direction imaginable. This vampire – as it was clear they were both vampires, like me – was obviously the veteran of many battles with our kind. I had seen similar scars on many in our coven after run ins with each other.

And if that wasn't bad enough, as the other vampire turned in my direction I noticed his eyes. His _yellow_ eyes.

The yellow-eyes had found me.


	3. Chapter 3

After a second or two of fear, I managed to calm myself. I knew that they couldn't see me. My gift would prevent that.

Or would it? Were these vampires stronger than us? Would they be able to see through it? I couldn't be sure. I thought about bringing my gift to full strength, but I didn't know if I wanted to do that. What if they talked about what had happened to Bree? There was no doubt in my mind that they'd come here to find me, but I needed them to be able to think about me a little. If there was any chance that Bree was still alive, I needed to know, although I doubted that more with every passing moment.

The scarred one looked around him. "I can't see him anywhere, Carlisle." He seemed to be squinting, and I thought I could see discomfort on his face. Good. I was pretty sure it was me he was talking about and it was clear that they couldn't sense me.

"Remember what Alice said, son," the vampire named Carlisle replied. "We're going to have trouble finding him. He's talented."

Alice? Who was she and what could she do? Could she somehow sense the abilities that vampires had? Or had she forced Bree to tell her what I could do? It would had to have been Bree who had told her. I doubted any of the others could remember me. I pulled my gift more tightly around me to make these men forget me completely. I considered leaving immediately, but since I was pretty sure my talent worked on them, I was curious to see if they were affected by its potency.

Both of them looked around, frowning. They seemed confused about their reason for being there. Good.

"Maybe we should get going," Carlisle said.

I was smiling with satisfaction until the scarred one's cell phone went off. He took it out.

"Alice? We're in Queen Elizabeth Park, I think. How … what? Of course I remember. I … Why are we here? … Fred?"

I stiffened. They shouldn't be able to think of me. I could see the effort it took the scarred one to even say my name. His face was twisting as he tried to avoid thinking about me. Whoever Alice was, she was powerful.

It seemed I had overstayed my welcome. But just as I was about to leave, I felt my fear subside. I frowned. Why wasn't I afraid of these vampires anymore? That couldn't be right.

But no matter how hard I tried, I felt only peace. Calm. I couldn't even feel panic as I realized what must be happening.

Someone was messing with my emotions. They were _making_ me feel safe, even though I was not. I tried to feel fear. I tried to set my thoughts on a course that would lead me out of here, but it was difficult to even convince myself I needed to move. I was so relaxed. It was completely unnatural.

The other vampire, Carlisle, was gritting his teeth. He didn't seem to be able to turn in my direction and he clearly had trouble opening his mouth. I could guess what he was going to say before he said it.

"Fred?"

He took a few breaths, as if trying to keep his mind clear of my influence. "We mean you … no harm, Fred. We don't want … to hurt you. The child … Bree … she wanted us to find you. You need to know … about … our world."

The man managed to turn his head in my direction and I looked into his eyes. It was strange. They were the most compassionate eyes I had ever seen on any individual, vampire or human. I looked again at both of them. Even the one with the scars did not seem about to attack. They were not wild like the others I had known or furious and frantic as Riley had often been. They seemed in control.

But that didn't mean that they were safe.

However, I couldn't see anything like aggression in the face of the man with the compassionate eyes. I found it hard to even imagine that he could hurt anyone. I didn't understand how that could be. After all, it was clear he was a vampire. He had to kill on a regular basis just to satisfy his thirst. How could he look so kind?

That was what got to me in the end. He looked so different from any other vampire I'd seen that it awoke my curiosity. I wanted to know more about him. I knew I could always run if need be; it was clear that my ability did affect them. They would not be able to follow me if I chose to leave, not quickly, anyway. And I would keep my distance.

Sniffing the air to be sure that there were no more vampires around, I stepped out of the bushes. I watched them for a moment. Yes, it was clear that they still couldn't see me, even though I was right in front of them. That was reassuring.

I withdrew my gift and both of them saw me, and they looked startled. The after-effects of my power were clearly lingering. They still found it difficult to look in my direction. The scarred one seemed to become more cautious as he tried to look at me. I took that to mean he considered me a danger.

But they still didn't attack.

"Fred?" The one called Carlisle said.

"What do you want?"

Now that I had spoken and engaged them, it seemed I became clearer in their eyes. I made note of that.

Both of them heaved a sigh of relief and straightened as they saw me. I was still wary of them – they obviously had talents of their own – but I stood my ground.

"Fred. It's good to meet you. Allow me to introduce us. My name is Carlisle Cullen. This is my son, Jasper."

Jasper nodded his head at me, but he still regarded me with wary eyes.

I raised my eyebrows at his choice of words. "Your son? So you created him?"

Carlisle shook his head. "No. My wife, Esme and I adopted Jasper and his wife, Alice, into our family."

Family. There was a new word for this world. Family, not coven. These yellow eyed vampires were strange.

But a more pressing question came to my mind. "Where is Bree?"

Jasper tensed at my question, which made me tense too, although, bizarrely, I still felt peaceful. Carlisle looked sorrowful.

"I'm so very sorry," he said. "We couldn't save her."

I narrowed my eyes. "Save her? From who? Riley? Or yourselves?"

Carlisle sighed. "It's a long story, but please believe me when I say that we did everything we could to save Bree."

"She's dead?"

He nodded.

Even though these vampires had been presented to me as the enemy, I found it surprisingly easy to believe them. After all, who had my previous information come from? A vampire who I had never trusted, who had used me from the start and continued to use me to the end. But this vampire showed no signs of the manipulation of Riley. "What happened?"

Before he answered, Jasper's phone rang again. After speaking quietly for a few moments, he hung up and turned to us. "Alice says that the clouds are going to break soon."

Carlisle nodded. "Then we'd better seek cover." He began looking around.

"But the sun doesn't hurt us," I said.

"No, but the humans mustn't see us like that."

Carlisle and Jasper both stepped off the sidewalk, moving into the shelter of the trees. They moved ahead of me, putting their backs to me. I was reassured by this move and followed them.

I was still pondering over Carlisle's statement when we reached a sheltered position. "So the freaky vampires Bree told me about are real?"

Carlisle nodded. "They're called the Volturi. They are the rulers of the vampire world, and they insure that every vampire follows the rules."

I raised my eyebrows. "There are rules?"

"Only one, really. We can't let humans know we exist. The Volturi will destroy any vampire who reveals their existence to the human population, as well as any human who knows about us."

"This is why you need to be careful how you behave," Jasper said. "You must always hunt discreetly and clean up after yourself. You must never be seen in the sun."

I snorted. "Are you sure these Volturi are as dangerous as you say? We were hardly being discreet in Seattle."

"We know," Jasper said, his voice ominous.

"We wanted to ask you about that, actually," Carlisle said. "We're trying to work out exactly what happened."

So I told them all I knew, from the time I was created to the events of the past few days. They both nodded.

"There's no doubt the Volturi knew of your existence," Jasper said. "But it looks like they stopped short of destroying you."

"Why would they do that?"

I didn't miss the look that passed between them. "They have reasons," Carlisle said.

Whatever the reason, it seemed Carlisle didn't want to share it. "But believe us when we say that you don't want to disobey their laws."

"So what happened to you? Did my coven attack?"

Jasper smirked. "They tried. They didn't get very far."

That didn't surprise me.

"We killed most of them," Carlisle went on. "Not because we wanted to, but because we were defending ourselves." He sounded sorrowful.

"So you weren't coming to attack us?" Surprise, surprise.

"No. Your creator made you because she wanted to destroy us."

I cocked my head. "Why would she do that?"

"Because she held a grudge against us. We destroyed her mate when he tried to kill a member of our family. She didn't take it well."

I nodded. "So Bree was killed –"

"Not by us," Carlisle interjected. "She surrendered to us. She didn't want to fight."

"Then by whom?"

Carlisle sighed. "The Volturi."

"Hm." I couldn't say why I was believing everything that Carlisle told me. I guess it was because it had a ring of truth to it. He wasn't trying to dance around the facts. "She shouldn't have gone."

Then I remembered why she had gone. "Did you kill Diego?"

That caught Carlisle's interest. "Diego. We don't think so. Something Bree … said … made us think that he was dead already."

I frowned. Carlisle was hiding something. "Bree told you all this?"

Carlisle looked apologetic. "She told my son. One of my other sons, Edward. You see, you aren't the only one who is gifted, Fred."

Suddenly it dawned on me. "Your Edward. He can read minds? Riley said one of your coven could read minds."

Carlisle nodded in confirmation. "Bree told Edward quite a bit through her mind. That's why we came to find you. She told him that you didn't know much about our world. We thought we'd better explain."

I was fascinated. "How can he do that, something like read minds? Do you have any other talents?"

Carlisle looked at Jasper. "Jasper has a very useful talent."

I felt a calm fall over me as Jasper grinned. "In case you hadn't noticed, I can influence people's emotions."

Finally, that piece of the puzzle fell into place. "That explains a lot. So how does it happen? Why do some have talents and some don't?"

Carlisle shrugged. "I can't be sure, but I think we all bring something from our human life into this new life. These abilities are enhanced, just like our appearance and our strength. While for some these things still remain within the realm of normality, some take on a more supernatural bent."

Now this was interesting, and certainly a plausible hypothesis. Hadn't I always enjoyed my own company and kept away from others? Was it reasonable to believe that this was an ability I had always had inside me? It was something so strong that it had carried over into my vampire life in an extreme way. I could only be grateful for it. I wasn't bothered by a skill that allowed me to make myself invisible.

But my thoughts turned in another direction. "So Bree told your son that Diego had never made it to the fight?" She had only returned to save Diego, and now it seemed he had been dead for some time. That would be the real reason he hadn't joined us for our days of training, I was sure.

I tried to think back, to isolate a time when it might have happened. He had been with us the day before training began, but then had gone out with Bree that night. She had returned without him, looking more than a little disturbed. I wondered if it was then she had found out all this extra information. She had known about these Volturi. She had known the sun did not burn us. How did she find out? Did Diego know too? Likely he did. And if he knew that, who was most likely to have killed him? Not this Volturi. They seemed happy to let us die fighting.

So there was only one other, or rather two others: Riley and our creator. There was no other possibility.

I thought back to Riley when he had returned that night. He was furious, but it had been far more than usual. He had taken it out on everyone and he seemed uncontrollable for a while. Was it grief for Diego? Or was it something more?

Something else he had said came back to me. At the time I had passed over it; it was just part of the white noise that often came from Riley. He had threatened us with death if we didn't obey. What had he said?

"You will learn how wrong you are when I take you to _her_ and hold you while she tears of your legs and then slowly, _slowly_ burns off your fingers, ears, lips, tongue, and every other superfluous appendage _one by one_."

It was extremely specific. Could they have done that to Diego? Why? "I think she and Diego may have found out something that they didn't want them to know."

Carlisle nodded. "She knew about the Volturi."

"She knew about the sun too." I shook my head and felt my hands curl into fists. I wanted nothing more than to take Riley's head in my hand and rip it off. He and my creator. I wondered if there was enough scent left at the scene of the battle to follow them … I was sure they had run away from this fight to save their own necks.

Carlisle put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Fred."

I nodded. "Did Riley fight with our coven or run like the coward he is?"

"You don't need to worry about Riley or your creator. Edward destroyed both of them."

I let out a breath and relaxed a little. Bree's loss was still a considerable one, but at least she had been avenged. "Thank him for me."

"We will."

I looked back at the two of them. Jasper was less wary now, but his face was expressionless. Carlisle looked sorrowful. I didn't understand how he could be so empathetic. "Thank you for coming to find me."

Carlisle smiled. "That's quite all right. We wanted to warn you. What Bree told Edward suggested that you were already discreet, but considering the way you were created, we couldn't be sure that it would be enough. But as long as you stay that way, there will be no problem."

I turned to leave now that this audience was over. The clouds were back again and rain had begun to fall, so it was safe to do so.

Carlisle produced a card from his pocket. "This is my business card. We move around frequently, but that number is always active. If you ever want to visit we'd be more than happy to have you."

I took it from him and raised my eyebrows as I read it. "You're a doctor? What's your doctorate in?"

"Medicine."

I looked at him incredulously. "_Human_ medicine?"

He nodded.

"Why? Do you get your prey that way?" Surely that would be a risky way to obtain them, considering all the blood that would be around. The loss of control would be so dangerous, especially since exposure was obviously our biggest risk.

For the first time, Carlisle's face darkened. "No, I use it to save human lives."

My jaw dropped. "You're kidding!"

"Not at all. I'm sure you've noticed the difference in our eye color. It reflects the choice we've made in the way we live our lives. We feed on animals, not humans. All the members of my family believe human life is sacrosanct."

I was amazed. "Is that even possible?"

He glanced at Jasper. "It can be … difficult, especially if you're used to instant gratification. But we believe it is worth the difficulty. We believe preserving human life is more important than the … inconvenience it brings us to feed on something else."

I thought about that. It had never occurred to me to try anything like that, but it wasn't like I'd been around many animals since I was changed. They seemed to give our kind a wide berth. I wondered how difficult it would be. And was it something I wanted to try? Did _I_ think it was necessary?

I wasn't sure. After all, if I was a vampire, surely it was going against everything that was natural to desist from killing humans. I was just another link in the food chain, just as humans themselves were. They killed to eat, so did I. Did it matter if I killed humans? If it did, why had I evolved this way?

I nodded. "So you save humans rather than kill them. I bet that takes some doing."

Carlisle smiled. "It took a while to learn sufficient control, but it was worth the effort."

I looked back at him. Truly, this being was the most amazing individual I had ever met, human or vampire.

I put his card in my pocket. "Thank you, Carlisle. It was nice meeting both of you. Thank you for coming to find me."

They both smiled and nodded. "Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need anything, Fred. We'd be happy to help you."

"Certainly."

In a gesture linked to my human life, Carlisle held out his hand and I shook it. It had been a long time since I'd behaved in such a civilized manner. Jasper shook my hand as well, and then both of them stepped back into the bushes and disappeared.

I stood frozen as they left me, wondering what I was going to do now. Bree had been a good companion, and I couldn't deny that I would miss her. I was glad she had been avenged.

I thought of Carlisle and his "family" and their strange way of living. It seemed bizarre of them to go to all that effort. But then, maybe they were playing up its difficulty. I resolved I would try feeding that way myself to ascertain exactly how difficult it was.

Whatever the case, I would do it alone. In spite of Bree's loss, the solitude was not unwelcome. I had always enjoyed being alone. Now that I knew the rules for this new life, I was sure I could prosper. I certainly didn't miss the majority of those who'd plagued my life since I'd become a vampire. It would be much easier without them.

Would I ever crave companionship? I doubted it. But as I moved off through the forest, I touched the card Carlisle had given me. In a few years or so, maybe I'd follow up his offer and pay them a visit. I was sure they knew much more about our kind than I did. I would study myself and this life for a while, but if I found questions that I could not answer on my own, perhaps I would seek them out. They seemed amiable enough.

Then I could thank Edward, face to face, for destroying those I considered my enemies.


End file.
